Drug dealer sending unknown ale drinkers up to pub (8)
I believe the answer is:
pharmacy
'drug dealer' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'unknown ale drinkers up to pub' is the wordplay.
'unknown' becomes 'y' (algebra).
'ale drinkers' becomes 'camra' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'to' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'pub' becomes 'ph' (abbreviation).
'y'+'camra'='ycamra'
'ycamra' reversed gives 'armacy'.
'armacy' after 'ph' is 'PHARMACY'.
'sending' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pharmacy that I've seen before include "drug dealer" , "A chemist's shop where prescriptions are dispensed" , "It dispenses medicines" , "It supplies drugs" , "Where chemist works" .)